I see more and more about food plots.  Seems like everyone is selling this idea.

I don't see anything different with hunting over food plots and hunting over bait.  A small food plot may provide food for the whole herd for a month or two; and most bait stations are kept full for 3-4 months.

What are the ethical differences...if any.  Are food plots just a way to avoid state laws that prohibit using corn baits?

BEAR

Bear,

 Milo planted without any herbicide grows up in tall foxtail- sort of like millet- around here and the combination provides late season cover and food for the quail. They can dine on the milo under cover from the hawks. The milo heads remain above the occasional snow and more often frozen rain and snow we get here. Hay or forage beans look like small black soybeans and being a legume help put nitrogen back into the soil. Left out they shatter from the pods and are available to the deer and quail and turkeys, as is the standing milo, during January and Feb. Things slowly start to green up here during late March. Korean lespedza and the clovers and alfalfas. alongwith the beans that reseed each year, provide the rich top soils that promote the tiny little insect critters that the quail chicks need to make it until they can catch crickets and grasshoppers. The rabbits appreciate the forbs as well. The cardinals and chickades like the foxtail seeds and milo too. I like the purple top turnips and leave some for the deer. By the way Bear, turnips planted last June 15 grew to gigantic size, but weren't touched by the deer , even the tops. Turnips planted in late August and September were grazed clear off by November. Must have something to do with the sugars in the tops during cooler weather. And the food plots hold moisture and stop run off and provide cover and food. They also provide a fine expense and bother for the folks who plant and worry about them.

Shooting deer attracted to the fields is easy. I like easy. I can be picky about what I shoot and where I shoot it. I can take my time and enjoy the seasons. The little elevated house is heated and stocked with eatables. It has a few books. I am parolled there without too much worry on the part of my captors. If I don't show up when expected they know where to come looking. There is an old unused gate hinge on the post going into the place. The neighbors know that if I am in there the hinge is turned down. If I wait untill dark to walk out I am sometimes meet by a friend driving in to check on me.

I like shooting deer from there. Sometimes I'd like to hunt one but a man does what he can.

max.

Good topic bear,

Yes we whitetail hunters back east have been preached to time and again about food plots.  As a biologist, I have a problem with this idea.  WAYYYY too many folks think if you dig some ground then plant it deer, especially trophy bucks, will come flocking to your little 25 acre property with its 1/4 acre plot.  Bologna! 

There's all sorts of good and bad things about plots and feeders.  Plots provide more food tonnage than feeders, are legal for all game, give more of a "hands on" approach to deer mangement and as Max said they can also provide cover.  On the downside, a lot of yahoo wanna be farmer/deer managers don't have the slightest idea of how to practice good soil management techniques, pick the right seed (which most folks think you have to buy the "deer" blend for $20 more than the livestock blend even though they're the EXACT same thing), or operate the equipment, add lime or fertilizer.  Feeders are usually more expensive to run, though less costly to establish, are not always legal and present a vector for disease if not maintained or rotating their positions.

As for the ethics of it.  I don't see anything wrong with hunting over crop fields or food plots set up specifically for game.  If mother nature will allow it to grow then it's usually more acceptable in the eyes of the game law makers as well as the hunters.  Feeders on the other hand don't hold to the same natural laws of weather and soil requirements.  Setting up corn in a Yukon mountain range to attract sheep just isn't a natural phenomenon! 

Guess my take on it is if it can grow then let it and if deer wanna eat on it hunt them over it.  Realistically though when it all boils down, hunting in general uses some form of "bait" if you think about it.  For deer hunters, we use scrapes, trails, scents, feeding areas (whether natural acorns, food plots, or feeders) water holes and so on.  In my book the more "natural" the "bait" is then the more acceptable it is.